While you are waiting for your bills of exchange, replied the old

man, taking a purse out of his pocket, here are a hundred pistoles

with which you may do as you please. O, sir! rejoined Moralez, as if

he were shocked, my master will never take them. You do not know

him. Heaven and earth! he is a man of the nicest scruples in money

matters. Not one of your shabby fellows, always sponging upon his

friends, and ready to take up money wherever he can get it! Running

in debt is ratsbane to him. If he is to beg his bread or go into a

hospital, why, there is an end of it! but as for borrowing, he will

never be reduced to that. So much the better, said the good burgess:

I value him the more for his independence. Running in debt is a mean

thing; it ought to be ratsbane to him and everybody else. Your

people of quality, to be sure, may plead prescription in their favor;

there is a sort of privileged swindling, not incompatible with high

honor, in high life. If tradesmen were to be paid, they would be too

nearly on a level with their employers. But as your master has such

upright principles, heaven forbid they should be violated in this

house! Since any offer of pecuniary assistance would hurt his

feelings, we must say no more about it. As the point seemed to be

settled, the purse was for steering its course back again into the

pocket; but my provident partner laid hold of Signor de Moyadas by

the arm, and delayed the convoy. Stay, sir, said he: whatever

aversion my master may have to borrowing on a general principle, and

considered as borrowing, yet there is a light in which, with good

management, he may be brought to look kindly on your hundred

pistoles. In fact, it is only in a mercantile point of view, as an

affair of debtor and creditor between strangers, that he holds this

formal doctrine; but he is free and easy enough where he is on a

family footing. Why, there is his own father! It is only ask and

have; and he does ask and have accordingly. Now you are going to be

a second father to him, and are fairly entitled to be put on the same

confidential footing. He is a young man of nice discrimination, and

will doubtless think you entitled to the compliment.

By thus shifting his ground, Moralez got possession of the old

gentleman's purse. As for the girl and myself, we were engaged in a

little agreeable flirting; but were soon joined by our honored

parent, who interrupted our tête-à-tête. He told Florence how much

he was obliged to me, and expressed his gratitude to myself, in terms

which left no doubt of our being a very happy family. I made the

most of so favorable a disposition, by telling the good man, that if

he would bestow on me an acknowledgment the nearest to my heart, he

must hasten my marriage with his daughter. My eagerness was not

taken amiss. He assured me, that in three days at latest I should be

a happy bridegroom, and that instead of six thousand ducats, the

fortune he had promised to give my wife, he would make it up ten, as

a substantial proof how deeply he felt himself indebted to me for the

service I had rendered him.

Here we were, therefore, quite at home with our good friend Jerome de

Moyadas, sumptuously entertained, and catching every now and then a

vista vision of ten thousand ducats, with which we proposed to march

off abruptly from Merida. Our transports, however, were not without

their alloy. It was by no means improbable that within three days

the _bonâ fide_ son of Juan Velez de la Membrilla might come and

interrupt our sport. This fear had for its foundation more than the

weakness of our nerves. On the very next morning, a sort of

clodpole, with a portmanteau across his shoulders, knocked at the

door of Florence's father. I was not at home at the time, but my

colleague had to bear the brunt of it. Sir, said the rustic to our

sagacious friend, I belong to the young gentleman at Calatrava who is

to be your son-in-law--to Signor de la Membrilla. We have both just

come off our journey: he will be here in an instant, and sent me

forward to prepare you for his arrival. Hardly had these

unaccountable tidings been announced, when the master appeared in

person; which stretched the old fellow's blinkers into a stare, and

put Moralez a little to the blush.

Young Pedro was what we call a tall fellow of his inches. He began

at once paying his compliments to the master of the house; but the

good man did not give him time to finish his speech, and turning

towards my partner in iniquity, asked what was the meaning of all

this. Hereupon Moralez, whose power of face was not to be exceeded

by any human impudence, boldly asserted our identity, and said to the

old gentleman, Sir, these two men here before you belong to the gang

which pillaged us on the highway. I have a perfect recollection of

their features; and in particular could swear to him who has the

effrontery to call himself the son of Signor Juan Velez de la

Membrilla. The old citizen gulped down the lies of Moralez like

nectar, and told the intruders, on the supposition of their being the

impostors, Gentlemen, you are come the day after the fair: the trick

was a very good one, but it will not pass; the enemy has taken the

ground before you. Pedro de la Membrilla has been under this roof

since yesterday. Have all your wits about you, answered the young

man from Calatrava; you are nursing a viper in your bosom. Be

assured that Juan Velez de la Membrilla has neither chick nor child

but myself. And what relation is the hangman to you? replied the old

dupe: you are better known than liked in this house. Can you look

this young man in the face? or can you deny that you robbed his

master? If I were anywhere but under your roof, rejoined Pedro, in a

rage, I would punish the insolence of this scoundrel who fancies to

pass me off for a highwayman. He is indebted for his safety to your

presence, which puts a curb upon my choler. Good sir, pursued he,

you are grossly imposed on. I am the favored youth to whom your

brother Austin has promised your daughter. Is it your pleasure for

me to produce the whole correspondence with my father on the subject

of the impending match? Will you be satisfied with Florence's

picture sent me by him as a present a little while before his death?

No, put in the old burgess crustily; the picture will work just as

strongly on my conviction as the letters. I am perfectly aware by

what chance they all fell into your hands; and if you will take a

stupid fellow's advice, Merida will soon be rid of such rubbish. A

quick march may save you a trouncing. This is beyond all bearing,

screamed out the young roister with an overwhelming vehemence. My

name shall never be stolen from me, and assumed by a common cheat

with impunity; neither shall my person be confounded with that of a

freebooter. There are those in this town who can identify me; they

are forthcoming, and shall expose the fallacy by which you are

prejudiced against me. With this assurance he withdrew, attended by

his servant, and Moralez kept possession of the field. The adventure

had even the effect of determining Jerome de Moyadas to fix the

wedding for the very time being. Accordingly he went his way, for

the purpose of giving the necessary orders for the celebration.

Though my colleague in knavery was well enough pleased to see

Florence's father in a humor so pat for our purposes, he was not

without certain scruples of conscience about our safety. It was to

be feared lest the probable proceedings of Pedro might be followed up

by awkward consequences; so that he waited impatiently for my

arrival, to make me acquainted with what had occurred. I found him

over head and ears in a brown study. What is the matter, my friend?

said I; seemingly there is something upon your mind. Indeed there

is, and something that will be minded, answered he. At the same time

he let me into the affair. Now you may judge, added he after a

pause, whether we have not some food for reflection. It is your ill

star, rash contriver, which has thrown us into this perplexity. The

idea, it must be confessed, was full of fire and ingenuity; had it

answered in the application, your renown would have been emblazoned

in the chronicles of our fraternity; but according to present

appearances, the run of luck is against us, and my counsels incline

to a prudent avoidance of all explanations, by quietly sneaking off

with the market-penny we have made of the silly old fellow's

credulity.

Master Moralez, replied I to this desponding speech, you give way to

difficulties with more haste than good speed. Such pusillanimity

does but little honor to Don Matthias de Cordel, and the other

gallant blades with whom you were affiliated at Toledo. After

serving a campaign under such experienced generals, it is not

soldierly to shrink from the perils of the field. For my part, I am

resolved to fight the battles of these heroes over again, or, in more

vulgar phrase, to prove myself a chip from the old blocks. The

precipice which makes your head turn giddy only stiffens my sinews to

surmount the toils of the way, and push forward to the end of our

career. If you arrive at your journey's end in a whole skin, said my

companion, I will myself be your biographer, and set your fame far

above all the parallels of Plutarch.

Just as Moralez was finishing this learned allusion, Jerome de

Moyadas came in. You shall be my son-in-law this very evening, said

he. Your servant must have given you an account of what has just

passed. What say you to the impudence of the scoundrel who wanted to

make me believe that he was the son of my brother's correspondent?

Honored sir, answered I, with a melancholy air, and in a tone of

voice the most insinuating that ever cajoled the easy faith of a

dotard, I feel within me that it is not in my nature to carry on an

imposition without betraying it in my countenance. It now becomes

necessary to make you a sincere confession. I am not the son of Juan

Velez de la Membrilla. What is it you tell me? interrupted the old

man, out of breath with surprise, and out of his wits with

apprehension. So, then, you are not the young man to whom my brother

... For pity's sake, sir, interrupted I in my turn, condescend to

give me a hearing patiently to the end of my story. For these eight

days have I doted to distraction on your daughter; and this dotage,

this distraction, has riveted me to Merida. Yesterday, after having

rescued you from your danger, I was making up my mind to ask her of

you in marriage; but you gave a check to my passion, and put a tie

upon my tongue, by the intelligence that she was destined for

another. You told me that your brother, on his death-bed, enjoined

you to give her to Pedro de la Membrilla; that your word was pledged,

and that you were the sworn vassal and bondman of your veracity.

These circumstances, it must be owned, were overwhelming in the

extreme; and my romantic passion, at the last gasp of its despair,

gained breath by the stratagem with which the god of love inspired

me. I must at the same time declare, that a trick is at the best but

a mean thing, and, however sanctified by the motive, my conscience

recoiled at the delusion. Yet I could not but think that my pardon

would be granted on the discovery, when it should come out that I was

an Italian prince, travelling through this country as a private

gentleman. My father reigns supreme over a nest of inaccessible

valleys, lying between Switzerland, the Milanese, and Savoy. It

could not but occur to me that you would be agreeably surprised when

I should unfold to you my birth, and having married Florence under my

fictitious character, should announce to her the rank she had

attained) with all the rapture of an enamoured husband, and all the

stage effect of a hero in tragedy or romance. But heaven, pursued I,

with a hypocritical softening down of my accents, has visited my sins

by cutting me off from such a perennial stream of joy. Pedro de la

Membrilla was introduced upon the scene; he must have his name back

again, whatever the restitution may cost me. Your promise binds you

hand and foot to fix upon him for your son-in-law; it is your duty to

give him the preference, without taking my rank and station into the

account; without mercy on the forlorn condition to which you are

going to reduce me. To be sure, it might be said--but then I should

say it, who ought not to say it--that your brother had only the

authority of an uncle over your daughter, that you are her father,

and that there is more right and reason in discharging an actual debt

of gratitude towards your preserver, than in being mealy-mouthed

about a verbal promise, which would press but lightly on the

conscience of the most scrupulous casuist.

Yes, without doubt, that argument is indisputable, exclaimed Jerome

de Moyadas; and on that ground there can no longer be any question

between you and Pedro de la Membrilla. If my brother Austin were

still living, he would not think it bad morality to give the

preference to a man who has saved my life, nor a bad speculation to

close the bargain with a prince who has not disdained to court our

alliance. It were an absolute suicide on the part of all my opening

prospects, the frantic desperation of an acknowledged incurable, not

to dispose of my daughter so illustriously, not to solicit your

highness's acceptance of her hand. And yet, sir, resumed I, these

things are not to be determined without due deliberation; look at

your own interests and safety with a microscopic eye; for though the

illustrious channel through which my blood has flowed for ages ...

You are scarcely serious, interrupted he, in supposing that I can

hesitate for a moment. No, may it please your highness; it is my

most humble and earnest request that you will deign, on this very

evening, to honor the happy Florence with your hand. Well, then,

said I, be it so; go yourself and be the bearer of the unlooked-for

tidings; announce to her the brilliant career of her exalted destiny.

While the good citizen was putting his best foot foremost, to instil

into his daughter that she had made the conquest of a prince,

Moralez, who had taken in the whole conversation with greedy ear,

threw himself upon his knees before me, and did homage in these

bantering terms: Most potent, grave, and august Italian prince, son

of a sovereign supreme over a nest of inaccessible valleys, lying

between Switzerland, the Milanese, and Savoy, permit me to humble

myself at your highness's feet, in humble acknowledgment of the

ecstasy into which you have thrown me. By the honor of a swindler,

you are one of the wonders of our world. I always thought myself the

first man in the line; but in good truth I doff my bonnet before you,

whose genius seems to supersede the lessons of experience. Then you

are no longer uneasy about the result, said I to my colleague in

iniquity. O! as to that, not in the least, answered he. I no longer

care a fig for Master Pedro; let him come as soon as he pleases, we

are a match for him. Here we are, then, Moralez and myself, safe

seated on the saddle, and rising in our stirrups. We even went so

far as to begin settling the course we should pursue with the

fortune, on which we reckoned so securely, that if it had already

been in our pockets, we could not have chuckled more triumphantly

over the proverb of "a bird in the hand." Yet we were not in actual

possession, which is more than legal right; and the sequel of the

adventure proved to us, that many things fall out between the cup and

the lip.

We very soon saw the young man of Calatrava returning. He was

accompanied by two citizens and by an alguazil, whose dignity was as

much supported by his whiskers, and by the lowering overcast of his

swarthy aspect, as by the weight of his official character.

Florence's father was of the party. Signor de Moyadas, said Pedro to

him, here are three honest people come to answer for me; they are

acquainted with my person, and can tell you who I am. Yes,

undoubtedly, exclaimed the alguazil, I can depose to the fact. I

certify to all those whom it may concern, that you are known to me;

your name is Pedro, and you are the only son of Juan Valez de la

Membrilla: whosoever dares to maintain the contrary is an impostor.

I believe you implicitly, master alguazil, said the good creature

Jerome de Moyadas, rather dryly. Your evidence is gospel to me, as

well as that of these fair and honest tradesmen you have brought with

you. I am fully satisfied that the young gentleman on whose behalf

you come is the only son of my brother's correspondent. But what is

that to me? I am no longer in the humor to give him my daughter; so

there is an end of that.

O! then it is quite another matter, said the alguazil. I only come

to your house for the purpose of assuring you that this young man is

no impostor. You have the authority of a parent over your child, and

no one has any right to dictate to you how you are to marry her, and

whether you will or no. Neither do I on my part, interrupted Pedro,

pretend to lay any force on the inclinations of Signor de Moyadas;

but he will perhaps allow me to ask him why he has so suddenly

changed his resolution. Has he any reason to be dissatisfied with

me? Alas! let me at least understand, that in losing the sweet hope

of becoming his son-in-law, my promised bliss has not been wrested

from me by any misconduct of my own. I have no complaint to make of

you, answered the old man; nay, I will even tell you more; it is with

sincere sorrow that I find myself under the necessity of breaking my

word with you, and I heartily beseech you to forgive me for having

done so. I am persuaded that you are too generous to bear me any

ill-will for having thrown the balance into the scale of a rival, who

has saved my life. You see him here, pursued he, introducing my

noble self; this is the illustrious personage who threw round me the

shield of his protection in my great peril; and, the better still to

apologize for my seemingly harsh treatment of yourself, you are to

know that he is an Italian prince.

At these last words, Pedro was dumfounded, and looked as if he could

not help it. The two tradesmen opened their eyes as wide as they

could stare, with surprise at finding themselves for the first time

in princely society. But the alguazil, in the habit of looking at

things with the cross eye of suspicion, divined most perspicuously

that this marvellous adventure must be a complete humbug; and the

verification of the prophecy was calculated to put money into the

pocket of the prophet. He therefore conned over my countenance with

a very inquisitive regard; but as my features, which were new to

justice, threw him out most cruelly from hunting down the game he was

in chase of, he had no alternative but to try his luck on my

companion. Unfortunately for my highness of the inaccessible

valleys, he knew again the hang-dog features of Moralez; and

recollecting to have seen him within the purlieus of a jail, Ay, ay!

exclaimed he, this is one of my established customers. This

gentleman is a particular acquaintance of mine, and you may take his

character from me for one of the rankest rascals within the kingdoms

and principalities of Spain. Softly! look before you leap, most

adventurous alguazil, said Jerome de Moyadas; this lad, of whom you

draw so unfavorable a picture, is in the travelling retinue of a

prince. So much the better, retorted the alguazil; a man would not

desire clearer evidence on which to bring in his verdict. If we can

but hang the servant, we shall soon send the master to the devil.

The case is as undeniable as a feed counsel's plea; these pleasant

sparks are a couple of fortune-hunters, who have laid their heads

together to take you in. I am an old hound upon this scent; so that,

by way of proof presumptive that these merry vagabonds are within the

contemplation of the law in that case provided, I shall lodge them

where they will be well taken care of. They will have plenty of time

for meditation under the chastising philosophy of a turnkey; or

should confinement fail to mend their morals, we have a sort of

tangible discipline, which insinuates reformation by the inlet of a

smarting hide. Stop there, and bethink you in good time, master

officer, rejoined the old gentleman: we must not draw the cord

tighter than it will bear. You never make any bones, you hangers-on

of the law, about hurting the feelings of better men than yourselves.

May not this servant be a common cheat, without his master being a

swindler? Princes are persons of honor as a matter of course; yet

the retainers to a court are inordinate rascals; it requires no

conjurer to find that out. Are you playing into the hands of your

deluders, with your princes? interrupted the alguazil. This new

manufacturer of false pretences is a proficient, take my word for it;

but I shall quench his zeal in the service, and gravel the ingenuity

of his partner, with a _whereas_ and a commitment in due form. The

scouts of justice are all round the door, who will worry their game

every inch of the chase, if they do not suffer themselves to be taken

quietly on their form. So come along, may it please your serene

highness; let us proceed to our destination.

This upshot of the business was a death-blow to me, as well as to

Moralez; and our confusion did but infuse doubts into the mind of

Jerome de Moyadas, or rather burned, sunk, and destroyed us in his

esteem. He began rather to think, not without reason, that we had

some little design to impose on his credulity. Nevertheless he acted

on this occasion in the spirit of a man of honor and a gentleman. My

good friend and protector, said he to the alguazil, your conjectures

may be without foundation; on the other hand, they may turn out to

have too much truth in them. Whichever of these alternatives may be

the fact, let us not look too curiously into their characters. They

are both young, and have time enough for amendment if they want it;

let them go their ways, and withdraw whithersoever it may best please

them. Make no opposition, I beseech you, to their safe egress; it is

a favor which you may consider as done to me, and my motive for

asking it is to acquit myself of my debt to them. If my heart was

not too soft for my profession, answered the alguazil, I should lodge

these pretty gentlemen in limbo, in defiance of all your pleadings in

their favor; but your eloquence and my susceptibility have relaxed

the stern demeanor of justice for this evening. Let them, however,

leave town on the spur of the occasion; for if I come across them

to-morrow, and there is any faith in an alguazil, they shall see such

sport as will be no sport to them. When it was signified to Moralez

and me, culprits as we were, that we were to be let off scot free, we

polished up the brass upon our foreheads a little. It was time now

to bounce and swagger, and to maintain that we were men of undeniable

respectability; but the alguazil looked askew at us, and muttered

that least said was soonest mended. I do not know how, but those

gentry have a strange knack of curbing our genius; they are complete

lords of the ascendant. Florence and her dowry, therefore, were lost

to Pedro de la Membrilla by a turn of the dice, and we may conclude

that he was received as the son-in-law of Jerome de Moyadas. I took

to my heels with my companion. We blundered on the road to Truxillo,

with the consolation at our hearts of having at least pocketed a

hundred pistoles by our frolic. An hour before nightfall we passed

through a little village, with the intention of putting up for the

evening at the next stage. An inn of very tolerable appearance for

the place attracted our notice. The landlord and landlady were

sitting at the door, on a long bench such as usually graces a

pot-house porch. Our host, a tall man, withered, and with one foot

in the grave, was tinkling on a cracked guitar to the unbounded

emolument of his wife, whose faculties seemed to hang in rapture on

the performance. Gentlemen, cried out the intrepid tavern-keeper,

when he found that we were not upon the halt, you will do well to

stop here; you may fare worse farther off. There is a devil of a

three leagues to the nearest village, and you will find nothing to

make you amends for what you leave behind; you may assure yourselves

of that. Take a word of advice, know when you are well used; I will

treat you with the fat of the land, and charge you at the lowest

rate. There was no resisting such a plea. We came up to our

courteous entertainers, paid them the compliments of course, and

sitting down by their side, the conversation was supported by all

four on the indifferent topics of the day. Our host announced

himself as an officer of the Holy Brotherhood, and his rib was a fat,

laughing squab of a woman, with outward good nature, but with an eye

to make the most of her commodities.

Our discourse was broken in upon by the arrival of from twelve to

fifteen riders, some mounted on mules, others on horseback, followed

by about thirty sumpter-mules laden with packages. Ah! what a

princely retinue! exclaimed the landlord at the sight of so much

company: where can I put them all? In an instant the village was

crammed full of men and beasts. As luck would have it, there was

near the inn an immense barn, where the sumpter-mules and their

packages were secured; the saddle-mules and horses were taken care of

in other places. As for their masters, they thought less about

bespeaking beds than about calling for the bill of fare, and ordering

a good supper. The host and hostess, with a servant girl whom they

kept, were all upon the alert to make things agreeable. They laid a

heavy hand upon all the fowls in the poultry-yard. These precious

roasts, with some undisguised rabbits, cats in the masquerade of a

fricassee, and a deluging tureen of soup, stinking of cabbage and

greasy with mutton fat, were enough to have given a sickener to the

inveterate stomachs of a regiment.

As for Moralez and myself, we cast a scrutinizing eye on these

troopers; nor were they behindhand in passing their secret judgments

upon us. At last we came together in conversation, and it was

proposed on our part, if they had no objection, that we should all

sup together. They assured us that they should be extremely happy in

our company. Here we are, then, all seated round the table. There

was one among them who seemed to take the lead; and for whom the

rest, though in the main they were on the most intimate terms with

him, thought it necessary on some occasions to testify their

deference. In case of a dispute, this high gentleman assumed the

umpire; he talked in a tone above the common pitch, going so far

sometimes as to contradict in no very courtly phrase the sentiments

of others, who, far from giving him back his own, were ready to swear

to his assertions and crouch under his rebuke. By accident the

discourse turned on Andalusia. Moralez, happening to launch out into

the praise of Seville, the man about whom I have been talking said to

him, My good fellow-traveller, you are ringing the chimes on the city

which gave birth to me; at least I am a native of the neighborhood,

since the little town of Mayrena is answerable for my appearance in

the world. I have the same story to tell you, answered my companion.

I am also of Mayrena; and it is scarcely possible but that our

families should be acquainted. Whose son are you? An honest

notary's, replied the stranger, by name Martin Moralez. As fate will

have it, exclaimed my comrade with emotion, the adventure is very

remarkable! You are, then, my eldest brother, Manuel Moralez.

Exactly so, said the other; and if my senses do not deceive me, you

your very self are my little brother Lewis, whom I left in the cradle

when I turned my back upon my father's house? You are right in your

conjectures, answered my honest colleague. At this discovery, they

both got up from table, and almost hugged the breath out of each

other's bodies. At last Signor Manuel said to the company,

Gentlemen, this circumstance is altogether marvellous. By mere

chance, I have met with a brother, and have been challenged by him,

whom I have not seen for more than twenty years: allow me to

introduce him. At once all the travellers, who had risen from their

seats out of curiosity and good manners, paid their compliments to

the younger Moralez, and made him run the gantlet through their

salutations. When these were over, the party returned to the table;

nor did they think any more of an adjournment. Bed-time never

entered into their heads. The two brothers sat next to one another,

and talked in a whisper about their family affairs; the other guests

plied the bottle, and made merry in a louder key.

Lewis had a long conference with Manuel, and afterwards taking me

aside, said to me, All these troopers belong to the household of the

Count de Montanos, whom the king has very lately appointed to the

vice-regal government of Majorca. They are convoying the equipage of

the viceroy to Alicant, where they are to embark. My brother, who

has risen to be steward to that nobleman, proposes to take me along

with him; and on the difficulty I started about leaving you, he told

me that if you would be of the party, he would procure you a good

berth. My dear friend, pursued he, I advise you not to stand out

against this proposal. Let us take flight together for the island of

Majorca. If we find our quarters pleasant, we will fix there; and if

they are otherwise, we have nothing to do but to return into Spain.

I accepted the proposal with the best grace possible. What a

reënforcement, in the person of young Moralez and myself, to the

household of the count! We took our departure in a body from the

inn, before daybreak. We got to the city of Alicant by long stages,

and there I bought a guitar, and arranged my dress in a manner suited

to my new destination, before we embarked. Nothing ran in my head

but the island of Majorca; and Lewis Moralez was a new man as well as

myself. It should seem as though we had bid farewell to the

rogueries of this wicked world. Yet, not to play the liar in the ear

of so rigorous a confessor as my own conscience, we had a mind not to

pass for villains incarnate, now that we had got into company that

had some pretensions to decency: and that was the sum total of our

honesty. The natural bent of our genius remained much the same; we

were still men of business, but just now keeping a vacation. In

short, we went on board gallantly and gayly in this lucid interval of

innocence, and had no idea but of landing at Majorca under the

especial care of Neptune and Æolus. Hardly, however, had we cleared

the gulf of Alicant, when a sudden and violent storm arose, enough to

have frightened better men. Now is my opportunity, or never, to

speak of moving accidents by flood; to set the atmosphere on fire,

and give a louder explosion to the thunder-cloud; to compare the

whistling of the winds to the factions of a populace, and the rolling

of the waves to the shock of conflicting hosts; with other such

old-fashioned phraseologies as have been heirlooms of Parnassus from

time immemorial. But it is useless to be poetical without invention.

Suffice it therefore to say, in slang metaphor, that the storm was a

devil of a storm, and obliged us to stand in for the point of

Cabrera. This is a desert island, with a small fort, at that time

garrisoned by an officer and five or six soldiers. Our reception was

hospitable and cordial.

As it was necessary for us to stay there some days, for the purpose

of refitting our sails and rigging, we devised various kinds of

amusements to keep off the foul fiend melancholy. Every one did as

seemed good in his own eyes: some played at cards, others diverted

themselves in other ways; but as for me, I went about exploring the

island, with such of our gentry as had either a curiosity or a taste

for the picturesque. We were frequently obliged to clamber from rock

to rock; for the face of the country is rugged, and the soil scanty,

presenting a scene difficult of access, but interesting from its

wildness. One day, while we were speculating on these dry and barren

prospects, and extracting a moral from the vagaries of nature, who

can swell into the fruitful mother and the copious nurse, or shrink

into the lean and loathsome skeleton, as she pleases, our sense was

all at once regaled with a most delicious fragrance. We turned as

with a common impulse towards the east, whence the scented gale

seemed to come. To our utter astonishment, we discovered among the

rocks a green plat of considerable dimensions, gay with honeysuckles

more luxuriant and more odorous than even those which thrive so

greatly in the climate of Andalusia. We were not sorry to approach

nearer these delicious shrubs, which were wasting their sweetness in

such unchecked profusion, when it turned out that they lined the

entrance of a very deep cavern. The opening was wide, and the recess

in consequence partially illuminated. We were determined to explore;

and descended by some stone steps overgrown with flowers on each

side, so that it was difficult to say whether the approach was formed

by art or nature. When we had got down, we saw several little

streams winding over a sand, the yellow lustre of which outrivalled

gold. These drew their sources from the continual distillations of

the rock within, and lost themselves again in the hollows of the

ground. The water looked so clear, that we were tempted to drink of

it; and such was its freshness, that we made a party to return the

next day, with some bottles of generous wine, which we were persuaded

would acquire new zest from the retreat where they were to be quaffed.

It was not without regret that we left so agreeable a place; nor did

we omit, on our return to the fort, boasting among our comrades of so

interesting a discovery. The commander of the fortress, however,

with the warmest professions of friendship, warned us against going

any more to the cavern, with which we were so much delighted. And

why so? said I; is there anything to be afraid of? Most undoubtedly,

answered he. The corsairs of Algiers and Tripoli sometimes land upon

this island, for the purpose of watering at that spring. One day

they surprised two soldiers of my garrison there, whom they carried

into slavery. It was in vain that the officer assumed a tone of kind

dissuasion: nothing could prevent us from going. We fancied that he

meant to play upon our fears; and the day following I returned to the

cavern with three adventurous blades of our establishment. We were

even foolhardy enough to leave our firearms behind as a sort of

bravado. Young Moralez declined being of the party: the fort and the

gaming-table had more charms for him, as well as for his brother.

We went down to the bottom of the cave as on the preceding day, and

set some bottles of the wine we had brought with us to cool in the

rivulets. While we were enjoying them in all the luxury of elegant

conviviality, our wits set in motion by the novelty of the scene, and

the echo reverberating to the music of our guitars, we espied at the

mouth of the cavern several abominable faces overgrown with whiskers;

neither did their turbans and Turkish dresses render them a whit more

amiable in our conceits. We nevertheless took it into our heads that

it was a frolic of our own party, set on by the commanding officer of

the fort, and that they had disguised themselves for the purpose of

playing us a trick. With this impression on our minds, we set up a

horse-laugh, and allowed a quiet entrance to about ten, without

thinking of making any resistance. In a few moments our eyes were

opened to that fatal error, and we were convinced, in sober sadness,

that it was a corsair at the head of his crew, come to carry us away.

Surrender, you Christian dogs, cried he, in most outlandish

Castilian, or prepare for instant death. At the same time the men

who accompanied him levelled their pieces at us, and our ribs would

have been well lined with the contents, if we had resisted in the

least. Slavery seemed the better alternative than death, so that we

delivered our swords to the pirate. He ordered us to be handcuffed

and carried on board his vessel, which was moored not far off; then,

setting sail, he steered with a fair wind towards Algiers.

Thus were we punished for having neglected the warning given us by

the officer of the garrison. The first thing the corsair did was to

put his hand into our pockets and make free with our money. No bad

windfall for him! The two hundred pistoles from the greenhorns at

Placentia; the hundred which Moralez had received from Jerome de

Movadas, and which, as ill luck would have it, were in my custody;

all this was swept away without a single qualm of conscience. My

companions, too, had their purses well lined; and it was all fish

that came to the net. The pirate seemed to chuckle at so successful

a drag; and the scoundrel, not contented with chousing us of our

cash, insulted us with his infernal Moorish witticisms: but the edge

of his satire was not half so keen as the dire necessity which made

us the subject of it. After a thousand clumsy sarcasms, he called

for the bottles which we had set to cool in the fountain; those

irreligious Mahometans not having scrupled to load their consciences

with the conveyance of the unholy fermentation. The master and his

man pledged one another in many a Christian bumper, and drank to our

better acquaintance with a most provoking mockery.

While this farce was acting, my comrades wore a hanging look, which

testified how pleasantly their thoughts were employed. They were so

much the more out of conceit with their captivity, as they thought

they had drawn a prize in the lottery of human life. The island of

Majorca, with all its luxuries and delights, was a melancholy

contrast with their present situation. For my part, I had the good

sense to take things as I found them. Less put out of my way by my

misfortune than the rest, I joined in conversation with this

transmarine joker, and showed him that wit was the common language of

Africa and of Europe. He was pleased with my accommodating spirit.

Young man, said he, instead of groaning and sighing, you do well to

arm yourself with patience, and to fall in with the current of your

destiny. Play us a little air, continued he, observing that I had a

guitar by my side; let us have a specimen of your skill. I complied

with his command, as soon as my arms were loosened from their

confinement, and began to thrum away in a style that drew down the

applauses of my discerning audience. It is true that I had been

taught by the best master in Madrid, and that I played very tolerably

for an amateur upon that instrument. A song was then called for, and

my voice gave equal satisfaction. All the Turks on board testified

by gestures of admiration the delight with which my performance

inspired them; from which circumstance it was but modest to conclude,

that vocal music had made no very extraordinary progress in their

part of the world. The pirate whispered in my ear, that my slavery

should be no disadvantage to me; and that with my talents I might

reckon upon an employment, by which my lot would be rendered not only

supportable, but happy.

I felt somewhat encouraged by these assurances; but, flattering as

they were, I was not without my uneasiness as to the employment,

which the corsair held out as a nameless but invaluable boon. When

we arrived in the port of Algiers, a great number of persons were

collected to receive us; and we had not yet disembarked, when they

uttered a thousand shouts of joy. Add to this, that the air reëchoed

with a confused sound of trumpets, of Moorish flutes, and of other

instruments, the fashion of that country, forming a symphony of

deafening clangor, but very doubtful harmony. The occasion of these

rejoicings proceeded from a false report, which had been current

about the town. It had been the general talk that the renegado

Mahomet--meaning our amiable pirate--had lost his life in the attack

of a large Genoese vessel; so that all his friends, informed of his

return, were eager to hail him with these thundering demonstrations

of attachment.

We had no sooner set foot on shore, than my companions and myself

were conducted to the palace of the bashaw Soliman, where a Christian

secretary, questioning us individually one after another, inquired

into our names, our ages, our country, our religion, and our

qualifications. Then Mahomet, presenting me to the bashaw, paid my

voice more compliments than it deserved, and told him that I played

on the guitar with a most ravishing expression. This was enough to

influence Soliman in his choice of me for his own immediate service.

I took up my abode therefore in his seraglio. The other captives

were led into the public market, and sold there at the usual rate of

Christian cattle. What Mahomet had foretold to me on shipboard was

completely verified; my condition was exactly to my mind. I was not

consigned to the stronghold of a prison, nor kept to any works of

oppressive labor. My indulgent master stationed me in a particular

quarter, with five or six slaves of superior rank, who were in

momentary expectation of being ransomed, and were therefore favored

in the distribution of our tasks. The care of watering the

orange-trees and flowers in the gardens was allotted as my portion.

There could not be a more agreeable or less fatiguing employment.

Soliman was a man about forty years of age, well made as to figure,

tolerably accomplished as to his mind, and as much of a lady's man as

could be expected from a Turk. His favorite was a Cashmirian, whose

wit and beauty had acquired an absolute dominion over his affections.

He loved her even to idolatry. Not a day but he paid his court to

her by some elegant entertainment; at one time a concert of vocal and

instrumental music, at another, a dramatic performance after the

fashion of the Turks, which fashion implies a loose sort of comedy,

where moral and modesty enter about as much into the contemplation of

the contriver, as do Aristotle and his unities. The favorite, whose

name was Farrukhnaz, was passionately enamoured of these exhibitions;

she sometimes even got up among her own women some Arabian melodrames

to be performed before her admirer. She took some of the parts

herself, and charmed the spectators by the abundant grace and

vivacity of her action. One day, when I was among the musicians at

one of these representations, Soliman ordered me to play on the

guitar, and to sing a solo between the acts of the piece. I had the

good fortune to give satisfaction, and was received with applause.

The favorite herself, if my vanity did not mislead me, cast glances

towards me of no unfavorable interpretation.

On the next day, as I was watering the orange-trees in the gardens,

there passed close by me a eunuch, who, without stopping or saying a

word, threw down a note at my feet. I picked it up with an emotion

strangely compounded of pleasure and alarm. I crouched upon the

ground, for fear of being observed from the windows of the seraglio;

and, concealing myself behind the boxes in which the orange-trees

were planted, opened this unexpected enclosure. There I found a

diamond of very considerable value, and these words, in genuine

Castilian: "Young Christian, return thanks to heaven for your

captivity. Love and fortune will render it the harbinger of your

bliss: love, if you are alive to the attractions of a fine person,

and fortune, if you have the hardihood to confront danger in every

direction."

I could not for a moment doubt that the letter was written by the

favorite sultana: the style and the diamond were more than

presumptive evidence against her. Besides that nature did not cast

me in the mould of a coward, the vanity of keeping up a good

understanding with the mistress of a scoundrelly Mahometan in office,

and, more than all the temptations of vanity or inclination, the hope

of cajoling her out of four times as much as the curmudgeon her

master would demand for my ransom, put me into conceit with the

intention of trying my luck at a venture, whatever risk might be

incurred in the experiment. I went on with my gardening, but always

harping on the means of getting into the apartment of Farrukhnaz, or

rather waiting till she opened a door of communication; for I was

clearly of opinion that she would not stop upon the threshold, but

meet me half way in the career of love and danger. My conjecture was

not altogether without foundation. The same eunuch who had led me

into this amorous reverie passed the same way an hour afterwards, and

said to me, Christian, have you communed with your own

determinations, and will you win a fair lady by abjuring a faint

heart? I answered in the affirmative. Well then, rejoined he,

heaven sprinkle its dew upon your resolutions! You shall see me

betimes to-morrow morning. With this comfortable assurance, he

withdrew. The following day, I actually saw him make his appearance

about eight o'clock in the morning. He made a signal for me to go

along with him: I obeyed the summons; and he conducted me into a hall

where was a large wrapper of canvas, which he and another eunuch had

just brought thither, with the design of carrying it to the sultana's

apartment, for the purpose of furnishing a scene for an Arabian

pantomime, in preparation for the amusement of the bashaw.

The two eunuchs unrolled the cloth, and laid me at my length on the

proscenium; then, at the risk of turning the farce into a tragedy by

stifling me, they rolled it up again, with its palpitating contents.

In the next place, taking hold of it at each end, they conveyed me

with impunity by this device into the chamber devoted to the repose

of the beautiful Cashmirian. She was alone with an old slave devoted

to her wishes. They helped each other to unroll their precious bale

of goods; and Farrukhnaz, at the sight of her consignment, set up

such an alarm of delight, as exhibited the woman of the East, without

forgetting her prurient propensities. With all my natural bias

towards adventure, I could not recognize myself as at once

transported into the private apartment of the women, without

something like an inauspicious damp upon my joy. The lady was aware

of my feelings, and anxious to dissipate the unpleasant part of them.

Young man, said she, you have nothing to fear. Soliman is just gone

to his country-house: he is safely lodged for the day; so that we

shall be able to entertain one another here at our ease.

Hints like these rallied my scattered spirits, and gave a cast to my

countenance which confirmed the speculation of the favorite. You

have won my heart, pursued she, and it is in my contemplation to

soften the severity of your bondage. You seem to be worthy of the

sentiments which I have conceived for you. Though disguised under

the garb of a slave, your air is noble, and your physiognomy of a

character to recommend you to the good graces of a lady. Such an

exterior must belong to one above the common. Unbosom yourself to me

in confidence; tell me who you are. I know that captives of superior

condition and family disguise their real circumstances, to be

redeemed at a lower rate: but you have no inducement to practise such

a deception on me; and it would even be a precaution revolting to my

designs in your favor, since I here pledge myself for your liberty.

Deal with sincerity therefore, and own to me at once that you are a

youth of illustrious rank. In good earnest then, madam, answered I,

it would ill become me to repay your generous partiality with

dissimulation. You are absolutely bent upon it, that I should

intrust you with the secret of my quality, and commands like yours

are not to be questioned or resisted. I am the son of a Spanish

grandee. And so it might actually have been, for anything that I

know to the contrary; at all events, the sultana gave me credit for

it, so that with considerable self-congratulation at having fixed her

regard on a gentleman of some little figure in the world, she assured

me that it only depended on herself whether or no we should meet

pretty often in private. In fact, we were no niggards of our mutual

good will at the very first approaches. I never met with a woman who

was more what a man wishes her to be. She was, besides, an expert

linguist, above all in Castilian, which she spoke with fluency and

purity. When she conceived it to be time for us to part, I got by

her order into a large osier basket, with an embroidered silk

covering of her own manufacture; then the two slaves who had brought

me in were called, to carry me out as a present from the favorite to

her deluded lord; for under this pretence it is easy to screen any

amorous exports from the inspection of the officers intrusted with

the superintendence of the women.

As for Farrukhnaz and myself, we were not slack in other devices to

bring us together; and that lovely captive inspired me by degrees

with as much love as she herself entertained for me. Our good

understanding was kept a profound secret for full two months,

notwithstanding the extreme difficulty in a seraglio of veiling the

mysteries of love for any length of time from those uninitiated,

whose eyes are jaundiced by their own disqualification. Neither was

the discovery made at last by the means of envious spies. An unlucky

chance disconcerted all our little arrangements, and the features of

my fortune were at once aggravated into a frown. One day, when I had

been introduced into the presence of the sultana, in the body of an

artificial dragon, invented as a machine for a spectacle, while we

were parleying most amicably together, Soliman, to whom we had given

credit for having gone out of town, made his unwelcome appearance.

He entered so abruptly into his favorite's apartment, as scarcely to

leave time for the old slave to give us notice of his approach.

Still less was there any opportunity to conceal me. Thus therefore,

with all my enormities on my head, was I the first object which

presented itself to the astonished eyes of the bashaw.

He seemed considerably startled at the sight; and his countenance

flashed with indignation on the instant. I considered myself as a

wretch, just hovering on the brink of the grave; and death seemed

arrayed in all the paraphernalia of torture. As for Farrukhnaz, it

was very evident, in good truth, that she was miserably frightened;

but instead of owning her crime and imploring pardon, she said to

Soliman, My lord, before you pronounce my sentence, be pleased to

hear my defence. Appearances, doubtless, condemn me; and it must

strike you that I have committed an act of treason worthy the most

dreadful punishments. It is true, I have brought this young captive

hither; it is true that I have introduced him into my apartment, with

just such artifices as I should have used if I had entertained a

violent passion for him. And yet, I call our great prophet to

witness, in spite of these seeming irregularities, I am not faithless

to you. It was my wish to converse with this Christian slave, for

the purpose of disengaging him from his own sect, and proselyting him

to that of the true believers. But I have found in him a principle

of resistance for which I was not well prepared. I have, however,

conquered his prejudices; and he came to give me an assurance that he

would embrace Mahometanism.

I do not mean to deny that it was an act of duty to have contradicted

the favorite flatly, without paying the least attention to the

dangerous predicament in which I stood; but my spirits were taken by

surprise; the beloved partner of my imprudence was hovering on the

brink of perdition; and my own fate was involved with hers. How

could I do otherwise than give a silent and perturbed assent to her

impious fiction? My tongue, indeed, refused to ratify it; but the

bashaw, persuaded by my acquiescence that his mistress had told him

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, suffered his angry spirit

to be tranquillized. Madam, answered he, I am willing to believe

that you have committed no infidelity towards me; and that the desire

of doing a thing agreeable to the prophet has been the means of

leading you on to risk so hazardous and delicate a proceeding. I

forgive, therefore, your imprudence, on condition that this captive

assumes the turban on the spot. He sent immediately for a priest[*]

to initiate me. My dress was changed with all due ceremony into the

Turkish. They did just what they pleased with me; nor had I the

courage to object: or, to do myself more justice, I knew not what was

becoming of me, in so dreadful a disorder of all my faculties and

feelings. There are other good Christians in the world, who have

been guilty of apostatizing on less imminent emergencies!

[*] These wandering priests are at present known in Africa by the

name of Marabut. The first gymnosophists of Ethiopia most probably

were nothing more.--TRANSLATOR.

After the ceremony, I took my leave of the seraglio, to go and

possess myself, under the name of Sidy Hali, of an inferior office

which Soliman had given me. I never saw the sultana more; but a

eunuch of hers came one day to look after me. He brought with him,

as a present from his mistress, jewels to a very considerable amount,

accompanied with a letter, in which the lady assured me she should

never forget my generous compliance, in turning Mahometan to save her

life. In point of fact, besides these rich gifts, lavished upon me

by Farrukhnaz, I obtained through her interest a more considerable

employment than my first, and in the course of six or seven years

became one of the richest renegadoes in the town of Algiers.

You must be perfectly aware, that if I assisted at the prayers put up

by the Mussulmans in their mosques, or fulfilled the other

observances of their religion, it was all a mere copy of my

countenance. My inclination was always uniform and determined as to

returning before my death into the bosom of our holy church; and with

this view I looked forward to withdrawing some time or other into

Spain or Italy with the riches I should have accumulated. But there

seemed no reason whatever against enjoying life in the interval. I

was established in a magnificent mansion, with gardens of extent and

beauty, a numerous train of slaves, and a well-appointed equipage of

pretty girls in my seraglio. Though the Mahometans are forbidden the

use of wine in that country, they are not backward for the most part

in their stolen libations. As for me, my orgies were without either

a mask or a blush, after the manner of my brother renegadoes. I

remember in particular two of my bottle companions, with whom I often

drank down the night before we rose from table. One was a Jew, and

the other an Arabian. I took them to be good sort of people; and,

with that impression, lived in unconstrained familiarity with them.

One evening I invited them to sup at my house. On that very day a

dog of mine died--it was a pet; we performed our pious ablutions on

his lifeless clay, and buried him with all the solemn obsequies

attendant on a Mahometan funeral. This act of ours was not designed

to turn the religion we outwardly professed into ridicule; it was

only to furnish ourselves with amusement, and give loose to a

ludicrous whim which struck us in the moment of jollity, that of

paying the last offices of humanity to my dog.

This action was, however, very near laying me by the heels. On the

following day there came a fellow to my house, saying, Master Sidy

Hali, it is no laughing matter that induces me to pay you this visit.

My employer, the cadi, wants to have a word in your ear; be so good,

if you please, as just to step to his office, without loss of time.

An Arabian merchant, who supped with you last night, has laid an

information respecting a certain act of irreverence perpetrated by

you, on occasion of a dog which you buried. It is on that charge

that I summon you to appear this day before the judge; and, in case

of failure, you are hereby warned that you will be the subject of a

criminal prosecution. Away went he, leaving me to digest his

discourse; but the citation stuck in my throat, and took away my

appetite. The Arabian had no reason whatever to set his face against

me; and I could not comprehend the meaning of the dog's trick the

scoundrel had played me. The circumstance, at all events, demanded

my prompt attention. I knew the cadi's character--a saint on the

outside, but a sinner in his heart. Away went I therefore to wait on

this judge, but not with empty pockets. He sent for me into his

private room, and began upon me in all the vehemence of pious

indignation: You are a fellow rejected out of paradise! a blasphemer

of our holy law! a man loathsome and abominable to look upon! You

have performed the funeral service of a Mussulman over a dog. What

an act of sacrilege! Is it thus, then, that you reverence our most

holy ceremonies? Have you only turned Mahometan to laugh at our

devotions and our rites? My honored master, answered I, the Arabian

who has told you such a cock and bull story is a wolf in sheep's

clothing; and, more than that, he is even an accomplice in my crime,

if it is one, to grant such rest as to peace-parted souls to a

faithful household servant, to an animal with more good qualities

than half the two-legged Mahometans out of Christendom. His

attachment, besides, to people of merit and consideration in the

world was at once moral and sensible; and at his death he left

several little tokens of remembrance to his friends. By his last

will and testament, he bequeathed his effects in the manner therein

mentioned, and did me the honor to name me for his executor. This

old crony came in for twenty crowns, that for thirty, and another for

a cool hundred; but your worship is interested deeply in this

instrument, pursued I, drawing out my purse; he has left you

residuary legatee, and here is the amount of the bequest. The cadi's

gravity could not but relax, after the posthumous kindness of his

deceased friend; and he laughed outright in the face of the mock

executor. As we were alone, there was no occasion to make wry mouths

at the purse, and my acquittal was pronounced in these words: Go,

Master Sidy Hali; it was a very pious act of yours, to enlarge the

obsequies of a dog, who had so manly a fellow-feeling for honest

folks.

By this device I got out of the scrape; and if the hint did not

increase my religion, it doubled my circumspection. I was determined

no longer to open either my cellar or my soul, in presence of Arabian

or Jew. My bottle companion henceforward was a young gentleman from

Leghorn, who had the happiness of being my slave. His name was

Azarini. I was of another kidney from renegadoes in general, who

impose greater hardships on their Christian slaves than do the Turks

themselves. All my captives waited for the period of their ransom,

without any impatient hankering after home. My behavior to them was,

in truth, so gentle and fatherly, that many of them assured me they

were more afraid of changing their master than anxious after their

liberty; whatever magic that word may have to the ears of those who

have felt what it is to be deprived of it.

One day the bashaw's corsairs came into port with considerable

prizes. Their cargo amounted to more than a hundred slaves of either

sex, carried off from the Spanish coast. Soliman retained but a very

small number, and all the rest were sold. I happened to go to

market, and bought a Spanish girl ten or twelve years old. She cried

as if her heart would break, and looked the picture of despair. It

seemed strange that at her age slavery should make such an impression

on her. I told her, in Castilian, to combat with her terrors; and

assured her that she was fallen into the hands of a master who had

not put off humanity when he took up the turban. The little mourner,

not initiated in the trade of grief, pursued the subject of her

lamentations without listening to me. Her whole soul seemed to be

breathed in her sighs; she descanted on her wretched fate, and

exclaimed from time to time, in softened accents, O my mother, why

were we ever parted? I could bear my lot with patience, might we

share it together. With these lamentations on her lips, she turned

round towards a woman of from five-and-forty to fifty, standing at

the distance of several paces, and waiting, with her eyes fixed to

the ground, in a determined, sullen silence, till she met with a

purchaser. I asked my young bargain if the lady she was looking at

was her mother. Alas! she is, indeed, sir, replied the girl; for the

love of God, do not let me be parted from her. Well, then, my

distressed little damsel, said I, if it will give you any pleasure,

there is no more to do than to settle you both in the same quarters,

and then you will give over your murmuring. On the very moment I

went up to the mother, with the intention of cheapening her; but no

sooner did I cast my eyes on her face, than I knew again, with what

emotion you may guess! the very form and pressure of Lucinda. Just

heaven! said I within myself, this is my mother! Nature whispers it

in my ear, and can I doubt her evidence? On her part, whether a keen

resentment of her woes pointed out an enemy in every object on which

she glanced, or else it might be my dress that disfigured me; ... or

else I might have grown a little older in about a dozen years since

she had seen me; ... but, however historians may account for it, she

did not know me. But I knew her, and bought her: the pair were sent

home to my house.

When they were safely lodged, I wished to surprise them with the

pleasure of ascertaining who I was. Madam, said I to Lucinda, is it

possible that my features should not strike you? 'Tis true, I wear

whiskers and a turban: but is Raphael less your son for that? My

mother thrilled through all her frame at these words, looked at me

with an eager gaze, my whole self rushed into her recollection, and

into each other's arms we affectionately flew. I then caressed, in

moderated ecstasies, her daughter, who perhaps knew as much about

having a brother as I did about having a sister. Tell the truth,

said I to my mother; in all your theatrical discoveries, did you ever

meet with one so truly natural and dramatic as this? My dear son,

answered she in an accent of sorrow, the first sight of you after so

long a separation overwhelmed me with joy; but the revulsion was only

the more deeply distressing. In what condition, alas! do I again

behold you? My own slavery is a thousand times less revolting to my

feelings than the disgraceful habiliments ... Heyday! By all the

powers, madam, interrupted I with a hearty laugh, I am quite

delighted with your newly-acquired morality: this is excellent in an

actress. Well! well! as heaven is my judge, my honored mamma, you

are mightily improved in your principles, if my transformation

astounds your religious eyesight. So far from quarrelling with your

turban, consider me rather as an actor, playing a Turkish character

on the stage of the world. Though a conformist, I am just as much a

Mussulman as when I was in Spain; nay, in the bottom of my heart, I

never was a more firm believer in our Christian creed that at the

present moment. When you shall become acquainted with all my

hairbreadth escapes, since I have been domesticated in this country,

you will not be rigorous in your censure. Love has been the cause of

my apostasy, and he who worships at that shrine may be absolved from

all other infidelities. I have a little of my mother in me, take my

word for it. Another reason besides ought to moderate your disgust

at seeing me under my present circumstances. You were expecting to

experience a harsh captivity in Algiers, but you find in your

protector a son, with all the tenderness and reverence befitting his

relation to you, and rich enough to maintain you here in plenty and

comfort, till a favorable opportunity offers of returning with safety

into Spain. Admit, therefore, the force of the proverb, which says

that evil itself is good for something.

My dear son, said Lucinda, since you fully intend one day to go back

into your own country, and to throw off the mantle of Mahomet, my

scruples are all satisfied. Thanks to heaven, continued she, I shall

be able to carry back your sister Beatrice safe and sound into

Castile. Yes, madam, exclaimed I, so you may. We will all three, as

soon as the season may serve, go and throw ourselves into the bosom

of our family: for I make no matter of doubt but you have still in

Spain other indisputable evidences of your prolific powers. No, said

my mother, I have only you two, the offspring of my body; and you are

to know that Beatrice is the fruit of a marriage manufactured in as

workmanlike a manner as any within the pale of the church. And pray,

for what reason, replied I, might not my little sister have been just

as contraband as myself? How did you ever work yourself up to the

formidable resolution of marrying? I have heard you say a hundred

times, in my childhood, that there was no benefit of clergy for a

pretty woman who could commit such an offence as to take up with a

husband. Times and seasons ebb and flow, my son, rejoined she. Men

of the most resolute character may be shaken in their purposes: and

do you require that a woman should be inflexible in hers? But I will

now relate to you the story of my life since your departure from

Madrid. She then began the following recital, which will never be

obliterated from my memory. I will not withhold from you so curious

a narrative.

It is nearly thirteen years, if you recollect, said my mother, since

you left young Leganez. Just at that time, the Duke of Medina Celi

told me that he had a mind to sup with me one evening in private.

The day was fixed. I made preparations for his reception: he came,

and I pleased him. He required from me the sacrifice of all his

rivals, past, present, and to come. I came into his terms, in the

hope of being well paid for my complaisance. There was no deficiency

on that score. On the very next morning, I received presents from

him, which were followed up by a long train of kindred attentions. I

was afraid of not being able to hold in my chains a man of his

exalted rank: and this apprehension was the better founded, because

it was a matter of notoriety that he had escaped from the clutches of

several celebrated beauties, whose chains he had worn only for the

purpose of breaking. But for all that, so far from surfeiting on the

relish of my kindness, his appetite grew by what it fed on. In

short, I found out the secret of entertaining him, and impounding his

heart, naturally roving, so that it should not go astray according to

its usual volatility.

He had now been my admirer for three months, and I had every reason

to flatter myself that the arrangement would be lasting, when a lady

of my acquaintance and myself happened to go to an assembly, where

the duchess his wife was of the party. We were invited to a concert

of vocal and instrumental music. We accidentally seated ourselves

too near the duchess, who took it into her head to be affronted that

I should exhibit my person in a place where she was. She sent me

word, by one of her women, that she should take it as a favor if I

would quit the room immediately. I sent back an answer just as saucy

as the message. The duchess, irritated to fury, laid her wrongs

before her husband, who came to me in person, and said, Retire,

Lucinda. Though noblemen of the first rank attach themselves to

pretty playthings like yourself, it is highly unbecoming in you to

forget your proper distance. If we love you better than our wives,

we honor our wives more than you! whenever, therefore, your insolence

shall go so far as to set yourselves up for their rivals under their

very noses, you will always be mortified, and made to know your

places.

Fortunately the duke held his cruel language to me in so low a tone

of voice as not to have been overheard by the people about us. I

withdrew in deep confusion, and cried with vexation at having

incurred such an affront. At once, to crown my shame and aggravate

my chastisement, the actors and actresses got hold of the story on

the very same evening. To do them justice, these gentry must

contrive to entertain a familiar spirit, whose business is to fly

about, and whisper in the ear of one whatever falls out amiss to the

other. Suppose, for instance, that an actor gets drunk and makes a

fool of himself, or an actress gets hold of a rich cully and makes a

fool of him! The green-room is sure to ring with all the

particulars, and a few more than are true. All my kindred of the

sock and buskin were informed at once of what had happened at the

concert, and a blessed life they led me with their quips and

quiddities. Never was there charity like theirs. Without beginning

at home, heaven only knows where it ends! But I held myself too high

to be affected by their jibes and jeers: nor did even the loss of the

Duke de Medina Celi hang heavy on my spirits; for true it was, I

never saw him more at my toilet, but learned, a very short time

after, that he had got into the trammels of a little warbler.

When a theatrical lady has the good luck to be in fashion, she may

change her lover as often as her petticoat: and one noble fool,

should he even recover his wits at the end of three days, serves

excellently well for a decoy to his successor. No sooner was it

buzzed about Madrid that the duke had raised the siege, than a new

host of would-be conquerors appeared before the trenches. The very

rivals whom I had sacrificed to his wishes, looking at my charms

through the magnifying medium of delay and disappointment, came back

again in crowds to encounter new caprices; to say nothing of a

thousand fresh hearts, ready to bargain on the mere report of my

being to let. I had never been so exclusively the mode. Of all the

men who put in for being cajoled by me, a portly German, belonging to

the Duke of Ossuna's household, seemed to bid highest. Not that his

personal attractions were by any means the most catching; but then

there were a thousand amiable pistoles on the list of candidates,

scraped together by perquisites in his master's service, and turned

adrift with the prodigality of a prince, in the hope of becoming my

favored lover. This fat pigeon to be plucked was by name Brutandorf.

As long as his pockets were lined, his reception was warm: empty

purses meet with fastened doors. The principles on which my

friendship rested were not altogether to his taste. He came to the

play to look after me during the performance. I was behind the

scenes. It was his humor to load me with reproaches; it was mine to

laugh in his face. This provoked his boorish wrath, and he gave me a

box on the ear, like a clumsy-fisted German as he was. I set up a

loud scream: the business of the stage was suspended. I came forward

to the front, and, addressing the Duke of Ossuna, who was at the play

on that occasion with his lady duchess, begged his protection from

the German gallantry of his establishment. The duke gave orders for

our proceeding with the piece, and intimated that he would hear the

parties after the curtain had dropped. At the conclusion of the play

I presented myself in all the dreary pomp of tragedy before the duke,

and laid open my griefs in all the majesty of woe. As for my German

pugilist, his defence was on a level with his provocation: so far

from being sorry for what he had done, his fingers itched to give me

another dressing. The cause being heard pro and con, the Duke of

Ossuna said to his Scandinavian savage, Brutandorf, I dismiss you

from my service, and beg never to see anything more of you, not

because you have given a box on the ear to an actress, but for your

failure in respect to your master and mistress, in having presumed to

interrupt the progress of the play in their presence.

This decision was a bitter pill for me to swallow. It was high

treason against my histrionic majesty, that the German was not turned

off on the ground of having insulted me. It seemed difficult to

conceive the possibility of a greater crime than that of insulting a

principal actress: and where crimes are parallel, punishments should

tally. The retribution in this case would have been exemplary; and I

expected no less. This unpleasant occurrence undeceived me, and

proved, to my mortification, that the public distinguished between

the actors and the personages they may chance to enact. On this

conviction, my pride revolted at the theatre: I resolved to give up

my engagements, to go and live at a distance from Madrid. I fixed on

the city of Valencia for the place of my retreat, and went thither

under a feigned character, with a property of twenty thousand ducats

in money and jewels--a sum in my mind more than sufficient to

maintain me for the remainder of my days, since it was my purpose to

lead a retired life, I rented a small house at Valencia, and limited

my establishment to a female servant and a page, who were as ignorant

of my birth, parentage and education, as the rest of the town. I

gave myself out for the widow of an officer belonging to the king's

household, and intimated that I had made choice of Valencia for my

residence, on the report that it was one of the most agreeable

neighborhoods in Spain. I saw very little company, and maintained so

reserved a deportment that there never was the slightest suspicion of

my having been an actress. Yet, notwithstanding all the pains I took

to hide myself from the garish eye of day, I had worse success

against the piercing ken of a gentleman who had a country seat near

Paterna. He was of an ancient family, in person genteel and manly,

from five-and-thirty to forty years of age, nobly connected, but

scandalously in debt--a contradiction in the vocabulary of honor,

neither more unaccountable nor uncommon in the kingdom of Valencia,

than what takes place every day in other parts of the civilized world.

This gentleman of a generation or two before the present, finding my

person to his liking, was desirous of knowing if in other respects I

was a commodity for his market. He set every engine at work to

inquire into the most minute particulars, and had the pleasure to

learn from general report, that I was a warm widow with a comfortable

jointure, and a person little, if anything, the worse for wear. It

struck him that this was just the match; so that in a very short time

an old lady came to my house, telling me from him, that with equal

admiration of my virtues and my charms, he laid himself and his

fortune at my feet, and was ready to lead me to the altar, if I could

condescend so far as to become his wife. I required three days to

make up my mind on the subject. In this interval, I made inquiries

about the gentleman; and hearing a good character of him,

notwithstanding the deranged state of his finances, it was my

determination to marry him without more ado, so that the

preliminaries were soon ratified by a definitive treaty.

Don Manuel de Xerica--for that was my husband's name--took me

immediately after the ceremony to his castle, which had an air of

antiquity highly flattering to his family pride. He told a story

about one of his ancestors who built it in days of yore, and because

it was not founded the day before yesterday, jumped to a conclusion

that there was not a more ancient house in Spain than that of Xerica.

But nobility, like perishable merchandise, will run to decay; the

castle, shored up on this side and on that, was in the very agony of

tumbling to pieces: what a buttress for Don Manuel and for his old

walls was his marriage with me! More than half my savings were laid

out on repairs; and the residue was wanted to set us going in a

genteel style among our country neighbors. Behold me then, you who

can believe it, landed on a new planet, transformed into the

presiding genius of a castle, the Lady Bountiful of my parish; our

stage machinery could never have furnished such a change! I was too

good an actress not to have supported my new rank and dignity with

appropriate grace, I assumed high airs, theatrical grandeurs, a most

dignified strut and demeanor; all which made the bumpkins conceive a

wonderful idea of my exalted origin. How would they not have tickled

their fancies at my expense, had they known the real truth of the

case! The gentry of the neighborhood would have scoffed at me most

unmercifully, and the country people would have been much more chary

of the respect they showed me.

It was now near six years that I had lived very happily with Don

Manuel, when he ended ways, means, and life together. My legacy

consisted of a broken fortune to splice, and your sister Beatrice,

then more than four years old, to maintain. The castle, which was

our only tangible resource, was unfortunately mortgaged to several

creditors, the principal of whom was one Bernard Astuto. Cunning by

name, and cunning by nature! He practised as an attorney at

Valencia, and bore his faculties in all the infamy of pettifogging;

law and equity conspired in his person to push the trade of cozening

and swindling to the utmost extremity. To think of falling into the

clutches of such a creditor! A gentleman's property, under the gripe

of such a claw as this attorney's, affords much the same sport as a

lamb to a wolf, or a dove to a kite. Nearly after the fashion of

these beasts and birds of prey, did Signor Astuto, when informed of

my husband's death, hover over his victim, concealing his fell

purpose under the ambush of the law. The whole estate would have

been swallowed up in pleadings, affidavits, demurrers, and

rejoinders, but for the light thrown upon the proceedings by my lucky

star; under whose influence the plaintiff was turned at once into

defendant, and was left without a reply to the arguments of these

all-powerful eyes. I got to the blind side of him in an interview,

which I contrived during the progress of our litigation. Nothing was

wanting on my part--I own it frankly--to fill him brimful of the

tender passion; an ardent longing to save my goods, chattels, and

domain, made me practise upon him, to my own disgust, that system of

coquettish tactics and flirtation which had drawn so many former

fools into an ambuscade. Yet, with all the resources of a veteran, I

was very near letting the attorney escape. He was so barricaded by

mouldy parchments, so immured in actions and informations, as

scarcely to seem susceptible of any love but the love of law. The

truth, however, was, that this moping pettifogger, this porer over

ponderous abridgments, this scrawler of acts and deeds, had more

young blood in him than I was aware of, and a trick of looking at me

out of the corner of his eye. He professed to be a novice in the art

of courtship. My whole heart and soul, madam, said he, have been

wedded to my profession; and the consequence has been, that the uses

and customs of gallantry have seemed weary, stale, flat, and

unprofitable to me. But though not a man of outward show, I am well

furnished with the stock in trade of love. To come to the point at

once, if you can resolve in your mind to marry me, we will make a

grand bonfire of the whole lawsuit; and I will give the go-by to

those rascally creditors, who have joined issue with me in our attack

upon your estate. You shall have the life interest, and your

daughter the reversion. So good a bargain for Beatrice and myself

would not allow of any wavering: I closed without delay on the

conditions. The attorney kept his word most miraculously: he turned

short round upon the other creditors, defeated them with the very

weapons himself had furnished for their joint campaign, and secured

me in the possession of my house and lands. It was probably the

first time in his life that he had taken up the cause of the widow

and the orphan.

Thus did I become the honored wife of an attorney, without losing my

rank as the lady of the manor. But this incongruous marriage ruined

me in the esteem of the gentry about Valencia. The women of quality

looked upon me as a person who had lowered herself, and refused any

longer to visit me. This inevitably threw me on the acquaintance of

the tradespeople; a circumstance which could not do otherwise than

hurt my feelings a little at first, because I had been accustomed,

for the last six years, to associate only with ladies of the higher

classes. But it was in vain to fret about it; and I soon found my

level. I got most intimately acquainted with the wives of my

husband's brethren of the quill and brief. Their characters were not

a little entertaining. There was an absurdity in their manners which

tickled me to the very soul. These trumpery fine ladies held

themselves up for something far above the common run. Well-a-day!

said I, to myself, every now and then, when they forgot the blue bag:

this is the way of the world! Every one fancies himself to be

something vastly superior to his neighbor. I thought we actresses

only did not know our places; women at the lower end of private life,

as far as I see, are just as absurd in their pretensions. I should

like, by way of check upon their presumption, to propose a law, that

family pictures and pedigrees should be hung up in every house. Were

the situation left to the choice of the owner, the deuce is in it if

these legal gentry would not cram their scrivening ancestors either

into the cellar or the garret.

After four years passed in the holy state of wedlock, Signor Bernardo

d'Astuto fell sick, and went the way of all flesh. We had no family.

Between my settlement and what I was worth before, I found myself a

well-endowed widow. I had too the reputation of being so; and on

this report, a Sicilian gentleman, by name Colifichini, determined to

stick in my skirts, and either ruin or marry me. The alternative was

kindly left to my own choice. He was come from Palermo to see Spain,

and, after having satisfied his curiosity, was waiting, as he said at

Valencia for an opportunity of taking his passage back to Sicily.

The spark was not quite five-and-twenty; of an elegant, though

diminutive person; .... in short, his figure absolutely haunted me.

He found the means of getting to the speech of me in private; and, I

will own it to you frankly, I fell distractedly in love with him from

the moment of our very first interview. On his part, the little

knave flounced over head and ears in admiration of my charms. I do

really think--God forgive me for it--that we should have been married

out of hand, if the death of the attorney, whose funeral baked meats

were scarcely cold enough to have furnished forth the marriage

tables, would have allowed me to contract a new engagement at so

short a warning. But, since I had got into the matrimonial line, it

was necessary that where the church makes the feast, the devil should

not send cooks; I therefore took care always to season my nuptials to

the palate of the world at large.

Thus did we agree to delay our coming together for a time, out of a

tender regard to appearances. Colifichini, in the mean time, devoted

all his attentions to me: his passion, far from languishing, seemed

to become more a part of himself from day to day. The poor lad was

not too flush of ready money. This struck my observation; and he was

no longer at a loss for his little pocket expenses. Besides being

very nearly twice his age, I recollected having laid the men under

contribution in my younger days; so that I looked upon what I was

then lavishing as a sort of restitution, which balanced my debtor and

creditor account, and made me quits with my conscience. We waited,

as patiently as our frailty would allow, for the period when widows

may in decency so far surmount their grief as to try their luck

again. When the happy morning rose, we presented ourselves before

the altar, where we plighted our faith to each other by oaths the

most solemn and binding. We then retired to my castle, where I may

truly say that we lived for two years, less as husband and wife than

as tender and unfettered lovers. But alas! such a union, so happy

and sentimental, was not long to be the lot of humanity: a pleurisy

carried off my dear Colifichini.

At this passage in her history, I interrupted my mother. Heyday!

madam, your third husband despatched already? You must be a most

deadly taking. What do you mean? answered she: is it for me to

dispute the will of heaven, and lengthen the days parcelled out to

every son of earth? If I have lost three husbands, it was none of my

fault. Two of them cost me many a salt tear. If I buried any with

dry eyes, it was the attorney. As that was merely a match of

interest, I was easily reconciled to the loss of him. But to return

to Colifichini: I was going to tell you, that some months after his

death, I had a mind to go and take possession of a country house near

Palermo, which he had settled on me as a jointure, by our marriage

contract. I took my passage for Sicily with my daughter: but we were

taken on the voyage by Algerine corsairs. This city was our

destination. Happily for us, you happened to be at the market where

we were put up for sale. Had it been otherwise, we must have fallen

into the hands of some barbarian purchaser, who would have used us

ill; and we probably might have passed our whole life in slavery, nor

would you ever have heard of us.

Such was my mother's story. To return to my own, gentlemen, I gave

her the best apartment in my house, with the liberty of living after

her own fashion; which was a circumstance very agreeable to her

taste. She had a confirmed habit of loving, brought to such a system

by so many repeated experiments, that it was impossible for her to do

without either a gallant or a husband. At first she looked with

favor upon some of my slaves: but Hali Pegelin, a Greek renegado, who

sometimes came and called upon us, soon drew all her glances on

himself. She conceived a stronger passion for him than she had ever

done for Colifichini: and such was her aptitude for pleasing the men,

that she found the way to wind herself about the heart of this man

also. I seemed as if unconscious of their good understanding; being

then intent only on my return into Spain. The bashaw had already

given me leave to fit out a vessel, for the purpose of sweeping the

sea and committing acts of piracy. This armament was my sole object.

Just a week before it was completed, I said to Lucinda, Madam, we

shall take our leave of Algiers almost immediately; so that you will

bid a long farewell to an abode which you cannot but detest.

My mother turned pale at these words, and stood silent and

motionless. My surprise was extreme. What do I see? said I to her:

whence comes it that you present such an image of terror and despair?

My design was to fill you with transport; but the effect of my

intelligence seems only to overwhelm you with affliction. I thought

to have been thanked for my welcome news; and hastened with eagerness

to tell you that all is ready for our departure. Are you no longer

in the mind to go back into Spain? No, my son; Spain no longer has

any charms for me, answered my mother. It has been the scene of all

my sorrows, and I have turned my back on it for ever. What do I

hear? exclaimed I, in an agony: ah! tell me rather that it is a

fatal passion which alienates you from your native country. Just

heavens! what a change! When you landed here, every object that met

your eyes was hateful to them, but Hali Pegelin has given another

color to your fancy. I do not deny it, replied Lucinda: I love that

renegado, and mean to take him for my fourth husband. What an idea!

interrupted I, with horror: you to marry a Mussulman! You forget

yourself to be a Christian, or rather have hitherto been one only in

name, and not in heart. Ah! my dear mother, what a futurity do you

present to my imagination! You are running headlong to your eternal

ruin. You are going to do voluntarily, and from impure motives, what

I have only done under the pressure of necessity.

I urged many other arguments, in the same strain, to turn her aside

from her purpose, but all my eloquence was wasted; she had made up

her mind to her future destiny. Not satisfied with following the

bent of her base inclinations, and leaving her son to go and live

with this renegado, she had even formed a design to settle Beatrice

in her own family. This I opposed with all my might and main. Ah!

wretched Lucinda, said I, if nothing is capable of keeping you within

the limits of your duty, at least rush on perdition alone; confine

within yourself the fury which possesses you; cast not a young

innocent headlong over a precipice, though you yourself may venture

on the leap. Lucinda quitted my presence in moody silence. It

struck me that a remnant of reason still enlightened her, and that

she would not obstinately persevere in requiring her daughter to be

given up to her. How little did I know of my mother! One of my

slaves said to me two days afterwards, Sir, take care of yourself. A

captive belonging to Pegelin has just let me into a secret, of which

you cannot too soon avail yourself. Your mother has changed her

religion; and as a punishment upon you for having refused Beatrice to

her wishes, it is her purpose to acquaint the bashaw with your

flight. I could not for a moment doubt but what Lucinda was the

woman to do just what my slave had said she would. The lady had

given me manifold opportunities of studying her character; and it was

sufficiently evident that, by dint of playing bloody parts in

tragedy, she had familiarized herself with the guilty scenes of real

life. It would not in the least have gone against her nature to have

got me burned alive; nor, probably, would she have been more affected

by my exit after that fashion, than by the winding up of a dramatic

tale.

The warning of my slave, therefore, was not to be neglected. My

embarkation was hastened on. I took some Turks on board, according

to the practice of the Algerine corsairs when going on a piratical

expedition; but I engaged no more than was necessary to blind the

eyes of jealousy, and weighed anchor from the port as soon as

possible, with all my slaves and my sister Beatrice. You will do

right to suppose that I did not forget, in that moment of anxiety, to

pack up my whole stock of money and jewels, amounting probably to the

worth of six thousand ducats. When we were fairly out at sea, we

began by securing the Turks. They were easily mastered, as my slaves

outnumbered them. We had so favorable a wind, that we made the coast

of Italy in a very short time. Without let or hinderance, we got

into the harbor of Leghorn, where I thought the whole city must have

come out to see us land. The father of my slave Azarini, either

accidentally or from curiosity, happened to be among the gazers. He

looked with all his eyes at my captives, as they came ashore; but,

though his object was to discover his lost son among the number, it

was with little hope of so fortunate a result. But how powerful is

the plea of nature! What transports, expressed by mutual embraces,

followed the recognition of a tie so close, but so painfully

interrupted for a time!

As soon as Azarini had acquainted his father who I was, and what

brought me to Leghorn, the old man obliged me, as well as Beatrice,

to accept of an apartment in his house. I shall pass over in silence

the description of a thousand ceremonies, necessary to be gone

through, in order to my return into the bosom of the church; suffice

it to say, that I forswore Mahometanism with much more sincerity than

I had pledged myself to it. After having entirely purged myself from

my Algerine leaven, I sold my ship, and set all my slaves at liberty.

As for the Turks, they were committed to prison at Leghorn, to be

exchanged against Christians. I received kind attention in abundance

from the Azarini family; indeed, the young man married my sister

Beatrice, who, to speak the truth, was no bad match for him, being a

gentleman's daughter, and inheriting the castle of Xerica, which my

mother had taken care to let out to a rich farmer of Paterna, when

she resolved upon her voyage to Sicily.

From Leghorn, after having staid there some time, I departed for

Florence, a town I had a strong desire to see. I did not go thither

without letters of recommendation. Azarini, the father, had

connections at the grand duke's court, and introduced me to them as a

Spanish gentleman related to his family. I tacked don to my name, in

honest rivalry of impudence with other low Spaniards, who take up

that travelling title of honor without compunction, when far enough

from home to set detection at defiance. Boldly then did I dub myself

Don Raphael, and appeared at court with suitable splendor, on the

strength of what I had brought from Algiers, to keep my nobility from

starving. The high personages to whom old Azarini had written in my

favor, gave out in their circle that I was a person of quality; so

that with this testimony, and a natural knack I had of giving myself

airs, the deuce must have been in it if I could not have passed

muster for a man of some consequence. I soon got to be hand in glove

with the principal nobility, and they presented me to the grand duke.

I had the good fortune to make myself agreeable. It then became an

object with me to pay court to that prince, and to study his humor.

I sucked in with greedy ear all that his most experienced courtiers

said about him, and by their conversation fathomed all his

peculiarities. Among other things, he encouraged a play of wit; was

fond of good stories and lively repartees. On this hint I formed

myself. Every morning I wrote down in my pocket-book such anecdotes

as I meant to rack off in the course of the day. My stock was

considerably extensive, so that I was a walking budget of balderdash.

Yet even my estate in nonsense required economy, and I began to get

out at elbows, so as to be reduced to borrow from myself, and

mortgage my resources twenty times over; but when the shallow current

of my wit and wisdom was nearly at its summer drought, a torrent of

matter-of-fact lies gave new force to the exhausted stream of

quibble. Intrigues which never had been intrigued, and practical

jokes which had never been played off, were the tools I worked with,

and exactly to the level of the grand duke; nay, what often happens

to dull dealers in inextinguishable vivacity, the mornings were spent

in financiering those funds of conversation, which were to be drawn

upon after dinner, as if from a perennial spring of preternatural

wealth.

I had even the impudence to set up for a poet, and made my

broken-winded muse trot to the praises of the prince. I allow

candidly that the verses were execrable; but then they were quite

good enough for their readers; and it remains a doubt whether, if

they had been better, the grand duke would not have thrown them into

the fire. They seemed to be just what he would have written upon

himself. In short, it was impossible to miss the proper style on

such a subject. But whatever might be my merit as a poet, the

prince, by little and little, took such a liking to my person, as

gave occasion of jealousy to his courtiers. They tried to find out

who I was. This, however, was beyond their compass. All they could

learn was, that I had been a renegado. This was whispered forthwith

in the prince's ear, in the hopes of hurting me. Not that it

succeeded: on the contrary, the grand duke one day commanded me to

give him a faithful account of my adventures at Algiers. I obeyed,

and the recital, without reserve on my part, contributed more than

any other of my stories to his entertainment.

Don Raphael, said he, after I had ended my narrative, I have a real

regard for you, and mean to give you a proof of it, which will place

my sincerity beyond a doubt. Henceforth you are admitted into my

most private confidence, as the first fruits of which, you are to

know that one of my ministers has a wife, with whom I am in love.

She is the most enchanting creature at court, but at the same time

the most impregnable. Shut up in her own household, exclusively

attached to a husband who idolizes her, she seems to be ignorant of

the combustion her charms have kindled in Florence. You will easily

conceive the difficulty of such a conquest. And yet this epitome of

loveliness, so deaf to all the whispers of common seduction, has

sometimes listened to my sighs. I have found the means of speaking

to her without witnesses. She is not unacquainted with my

sentiments. I do not flatter myself with having warmed her into

love; she has given me no reason to form so sweet a conjecture. Yet

I will not despair of pleasing her by my constancy, and by the

cautious conduct, even to mystery, which I take care to observe.

My passion for this lady, continued he, is known only to herself.

Instead of pursuing my game wantonly, and overleaping the rights of

my subjects, like a true sovereign, I conceal from all the world the

knowledge of my love. This delicacy seems due to Mascarini, the

husband of my beloved mistress. His zeal and attachment to me, his

services and honesty, oblige me to act in this business with the

closest secrecy and circumspection. I will not plunge a dagger into

the bosom of this ill-starred husband, by declaring myself a suitor

to his wife. Would he might forever be insensible, were it within

possibility, to the secret flame which devours me; for I am persuaded

that he would die of grief were he to know the circumstances I have

just now confided to you. I therefore veil my pursuit in

impenetrable darkness, and have determined to make use of you for the

purpose of conveying to Lucretia the merit of the sacrifices my

delicacy imposes on my feelings. Of these you shall be the

interpreter. I doubt not but you will acquit yourself to a marvel of

your commission. Contrive to be intimate with Mascarini; make a

point of worming yourself into his friendship. Then an introduction

to his family will be easy; and you will secure to yourself the

liberty of conversing freely with his wife. This is what I require

from you, and what I feel assured that you will execute with all the

dexterity and discretion necessary to so delicate an undertaking.

I promised the grand duke to do my utmost in furtherance of his good

opinion, and in aid of his success with the object of his desires. I

kept my word without loss of time. No pains were spared to get into

Mascarini's good graces; and the design was not difficult to

accomplish. Delighted to find his friendship sought by a man

possessing the affections of the prince, he advanced half way to meet

my overtures. His house was always open to me; my intercourse with

his lady was unrestrained; and I have no hesitation in affirming my

measures to have been taken so well, as to have precluded the

slightest suspicion of the embassy intrusted to my management. It is

true, he had but a small share of the Italian jealousy, relying as he

did on the virtue of his Lucretia; so that he often shut himself up

in his closet, and left me alone with her. I entered at once into

the pith and marrow of my subject. The grand duke's passion was my

topic with the lady; and I told her that the motive of my visits was

only to plead for that prince. She did not seem to be over head and

ears in love with him; and yet, methought, vanity forbade her to

frown decisively on his addresses. She took a pleasure in listening

to his sighs, without sighing in concert. A certain propriety of

heart she had; but then she was a woman, and it was obvious that her

rigor was giving way insensibly to the triumphant image of a

sovereign bound in the fetters of her resistless charms. In short,

the prince had good reason to flatter himself that he might dispense

with the ill-breeding of a Tarquin, and yet bend Lucretia to a

compliance with his longings. An incident, however, the most

unexpected in the annals of romance, blasted his flattering

prospects; in what manner you shall hear.

I am naturally free and easy with the women. This constitutional

assurance, whether a blessing or a curse, was ripened into inveterate

habit among the Turks. Lucretia was a pretty woman. I forgot that I

was courting by proxy, and assumed the tone of a principal. Nothing

could exceed the warmth and gallantry with which I offered my

services to the lady. Far from appearing offended at my boldness, or

silencing me by a resentful answer, she only said, with a sarcastic

smile, Own the truth, Don Raphael; the grand duke has pitched upon a

very faithful and zealous agent. You serve him with an integrity not

sufficiently to be commended. Madam, said I in the same strain, let

us not examine things with too much nicety. A truce, I beseech you,

with moral discussions; they are not of my element: good honest

passion tallies better with our natures. I do not believe myself,

after all, the first prince's confidant who has ousted his master in

an affair of gallantry; your great lords have often dangerous rivals

in more humble messengers than myself. That may be, replied

Lucretia: but a haughty temper stands with me in the place of virtue,

and no one under the degree of a prince shall ever sully these

charms. Regulate your behavior accordingly, added she in a tone of

serious severity, and let us change the subject. I willingly bury

your presumption in oblivion, provided you never hold similar

discourse to me again: if you do, you may repent of it.

Though this was a comment of some importance on my text, and ought to

have been needfully conned over, it was no bar to my still

entertaining Mascarini's wife with my passion. I even pressed her,

with more importunity than heretofore, for a kind consent to my

tender entreaties; and was rash enough to feel my ground, by some

little personal freedoms. The lady then, offended at my words, and

still more at my Mahometan quips and cranks, gave a complete set down

to my assurance. She threatened to acquaint the grand duke with my

impertinence; and declared she would make a point of his punishing me

as I deserved. These menaces bristled up my spirit in return. My

love turned at once into hatred, and determined me to revenge myself

for the contempt with which Lucretia had treated me. I went in quest

of her husband; and after having bound him by oath not to betray me,

I informed him of his wife's correspondence with the prince, and

failed not to represent her as distractedly enamoured of him, by way

of heightening the interest of the scene. The minister, lest the

plot should become too intricately entangled, shut his wife up,

without any law but his own will, in a secret apartment, where he

placed her under the strict guard of confidential persons. While she

was thus kept at bay by the watch-dogs of jealousy, who prevented her

from acquainting the grand duke with her situation, I announced to

that prince, with a melancholy air, that he must think no longer of

Lucretia. I told him that Mascarini had doubtless discovered all,

since he had taken it into his head to keep a guard over his wife;

that I could not conceive what had induced him to suspect me, as I

flattered myself with having always behaved according to the most

approved rules of discretion in such cases. The lady might, I

suggested, have been beforehand, and owned all to her husband; and

had, perhaps, in concert with him, suffered herself to be immured, in

order to lie hid from a pursuit so dangerous to her virtue. The

prince appeared deeply afflicted at my relation. I was not unmoved

by his distress, and repented more than once of what I had done; but

it was too late to retract. Besides, I must acknowledge, a spiteful

joy tingled in my veins, when I meditated on the distressed condition

of the disdainful fair who had spurned my vows.

I was feeding with impunity on the pleasure of revenge, so palatable

to all the world, but most of all to Spaniards, when one day the

grand duke, chatting with five or six nobles of his court and myself,

said to us, In what manner would you judge it fitting for a man to be

punished, who should have abused the confidence of his prince, and

designed to step in between him and his mistress? The best way, said

one of the courtiers, would be to have him torn to pieces by four

horses. Another gave it as his verdict that he should be soundly

beaten till he died under the blows of the executioner. The most

tender-hearted and merciful of these Italians, with comparative

lenity towards the culprit, wished only just to admonish him of his

fault, by throwing him from the top of a tower to the bottom. And

Don Raphael, resumed the grand duke after a pause, what is his

opinion? The Spaniards, in all likelihood, would improve upon our

Italian severity, in a case of such aggravated treachery.

I fully understood, as you may well suppose, that Mascarini had not

kept his oath, or that his wife had devised the means of acquainting

the prince with what had passed between her and me. My countenance

sufficiently betokened my inward agitation. But for all that,

suppressing as well as I could my rising emotion and alarm, I replied

to the grand duke in a steady tone of voice, My lord, the Spaniards

are more generous; under such circumstances, they would pardon the

unworthy betrayer of his trust, and by that act of unmerited goodness

would kindle in his soul an everlasting abhorrence of his own

villany. Yes, truly, said the prince, and I feel in my own breast a

similar spirit of forbearance. Let the traitor then be pardoned;

since I have myself only to blame for having given my confidence to a

man of whom I had no knowledge, but, on the contrary, much ground of

suspicion, according to the current of common report. Don Raphael,

added he, my revenge shall be confined to this single interdict.

Quit my dominions immediately, and never appear again in my presence.

I withdrew in all haste, less hurt at my disgrace, than delighted to

have got off so cheaply. The very next day I embarked in a Barcelona

ship, just setting sail from the port of Leghorn on its return.

At this period of his history I interrupted Don Raphael to the

following effect: For a man of shrewdness, methinks you were not a

little off your guard, in trusting yourself at Florence for even so

short a time, after having discovered the prince's love of Lucretia

to Mascarini. You might well have foreboded that the grand duke

would not be long in getting to the knowledge of your duplicity.

Your observation is very just, answered the well-matched son of so

eccentric a mother as Lucinda; and for that reason, not trusting to

the minister's promise of screening me from his master's indignation,

it had been my intention to disappear without taking leave.

I got safe to Barcelona, continued he, with the remnant of the wealth

I had brought from Algiers; but the greater part had been squandered

at Florence in enacting the Spanish gentleman. I did not stay long

in Catalonia. Madrid was the dear place of my nativity, and I had a

longing desire to see it again, which I satisfied as soon as

possible; for mine was not a temper to stand parleying with its own

inclinations. On my arrival in town, I chanced to take up my abode

in a ready-furnished lodging, where dwelt a lady, by name Camilla.

Though at some distance from her teens, she was a very

spirit-stirring creature, as Signor Gil Blas will bear me out in

saying; for he fell in with her at Valladolid nearly about the same

time. Her parts were still more extraordinary than her beauty; and

never had a lady with a character to let a happier talent of

inveigling fools to their ruin. But she was not like those selfish

jilts who put out the gullibility of their lovers to usury. The

pillage of the plodding merchant, or the grave family man, was

squandered upon the first gambler or prize-fighter who happened to

find his way into her frolicsome fancy.

We loved one another from the first moment, and the conformity of our

tempers bound us so closely together, that we soon lived on the

footing of joint property. The amount, in sober sadness, was little

better than a cipher, and a few good dinners more reduced it to that

ignoble negative of number. We were each of us thinking, as the

deuce would have it, of our mutual pleasures, without profiting in

the least by those happy dispositions of ours for living at the

expense of other folks. Want at last gave a keener edge to our wits,

which indulgence had blunted. My dear Raphael, said Camilla, let us

carry the war into the enemy's quarters, if you love me; for while we

are as faithful as turtles, we are as foolish, and fall into our own

snare, instead of laying it for the unwary. You may get into the

head and heart of a rich widow; I may conjure myself into the good

graces of some old nobleman: but as for this ridiculous fidelity, it

brings no grist to the mill. Excellent Camilla, answered I, you are

beforehand with me. I was going to make the very same proposal. It

exactly meets my ideas, thou paragon of morality. Yes; the better to

maintain our mutual fire, let us forage for substantial fuel. As

good may always be extracted out of evil, those infidelities which

are the bane of other loves shall be the triumph of ours.

On the basis of this treaty we took the field. At first there was

much cry, but little wool; for we had no luck at finding cullies.

Camilla met with nothing but pretty fellows, with vanity in their

hearts, tinsel on their backs, and not a maravedi in their pockets;

my ladies were all of a kidney to levy rather than to pay

contributions. As love left us in the lurch, we paid our devotions

at the shrine of knavery. With the zeal of martyrs to a new religion

did we encounter the frowns of the civil power, whose myrmidons, as

like the devil in their nature as their office, were ordered on the

lookout after us; but the alguazil, with all the good qualities of

which the corregidor inherited the contraries, gave us time to make

our escape out of Madrid, for the good of the trade and a small sum

of money. We took the road to Valladolid, meaning to set up in that

town. I rented a house for myself and Camilla, who passed for my

sister to avoid evil tongues. At first we kept a tight rein over our

speculative talents, and began by reconnoitring the ground before we

determined on our plan of operations.

One day a man accosted me in the street, with a very civil

salutation, to this effect: Signor Don Raphael, do you recollect my

face? I answered in the negative. Then I have the advantage of you,

replied he, for yours is perfectly familiar to me. I have seen you

at the court of Tuscany, where I was then in the grand duke's guards.

It is some months since I quitted that prince's service. I came into

Spain with an Italian, who will not discredit the politics of his

country: we have been at Valladolid these three weeks. Our residence

is with a Castilian and a Galician, who are, without dispute, two of

the best creatures in the world. We live together by the sweat of

our brows and the labor of our hands. Our fare is not abstemious,

nor have we made any vow against the temptations of a life about the

court. If you will make one of our party, my brethren will be glad

of your company; for you always seemed to me a man of spirit, above

all vulgar prejudices, in short, a monk of our order.

Such frankness from this arch scoundrel was met half way by mine.

Since you talk to me with so winning a candor, said I, you deserve

that I should be equally explicit with you. In good truth I am no

novice in your ritual; and if my modesty would allow me to be the

hero of my own tale, you would be convinced that your compliments

were not lavished on an unworthy subject. But enough of my own

commendations; proceed we to the point in question. With all

possible desire to become a member of your body, I shall neglect no

opportunity of proving my title to that distinction. I had no sooner

told this sharper at all points, that I would agree to swell the

number of his gang, than he conducted me to their place of meeting,

and introduced me in proper form. It was on this occasion that I

first saw the renowned Ambrose de Lamela. These gentlemen catechised

me in the religion of coveting my neighbor's goods, and doing as I

would not be done by. They wanted to discern whether I played the

villain on principle, or had only some little practical dexterity;

but I showed them tricks which they did not know to be on the cards,

and yet acknowledged to be better than their own. They were still

deeper lost in admiration, when, in cool disdain of manual artifice,

as an every-day effort of ingenuity, I maintained my prowess in such

combinations of roguery as require an inventive brain and a solid

judgment to support them. In proof of these pretensions, I related

the adventure of Jerome de Moyadas; and on this single specimen of my

parts, they conceived my genius of so high an order, as to elect me

by common consent for their leader. Their choice was fully justified

by a host of slippery devices, of which I was the master-wheel, the

cornerstone, or according to whatever other metaphor in mechanics you

may best express the soul of a conspiracy. When we had occasion for

a female performer to heighten the interest, Camilla was sent upon

the stage, and played up to admiration in the parts she had to

perform.

Just at that period, our friend and brother Ambrose was seized with a

longing to see his native country once more. He went for Galicia,

with an assurance that we might reckon on his return. The visit

cured his patriotic sickness. As he was on the road back, having

halted at Burgos to strike some stroke of business, an innkeeper of

his acquaintance introduced him into the service of Signor Gil Blas

de Santillane, not forgetting to instruct him thoroughly in the state

of that gentleman's affairs. Signor Gil Blas, pursued Don Raphael,

addressing his discourse to me, you know in what manner we eased you

of your movables in a ready-furnished lodging at Valladolid; and you

must doubtless have suspected Ambrose to have been the principal

contriver of that exploit, and not without reason. On his coming

into town, he ran himself out of breath to find us, and laid open

every particular of your situation, so that the associated swindlers

had nothing to do but to build on his foundation. But you are

unacquainted with the consequences of that adventure; you shall

therefore have them on my authority. Your portmanteau was made free

with by Ambrose and myself. We also took the liberty of riding your

mules in the direction of Madrid, not dropping the least hint to

Camilla nor to our partners in iniquity, who must have partaken in

some measure of your feelings in the morning, at finding their glory

shorn of two such beams.

On the second day we changed our purpose. Instead of going to

Madrid, whence I had not sallied forth without an urgent motive, we

passed by Zebreros, and continued our journey as far as Toledo. Our

first care, in that town, was to dress ourselves in the genteelest

style; then, assuming the character of two brothers from Galicia on

our travels of mere curiosity, we soon got acquainted in the most

respectable circles. I was so much in the habit of acting the man of

fashion, as not easily to be detected; and as the generality of

people are blinded by a free expenditure, we threw dust into the eyes

of all the world, by the elegant entertainments to which we invited

the ladies. Among the women who frequented our parties, there was

one not indifferent to me. She appeared more beautiful than Camilla,

and certainly much younger. I inquired who she was; and learned that

her name was Violante, and that she was married to an ungrateful

spark, who soon grew weary of her chaste caresses, and was running

after those of a prostitute, with whom he was in love. There was no

need to say any more to determine me on enthroning Violante the

sovereign lady and mistress of my thoughts and affections.

She was not long in coming to the knowledge of her conquest. I began

by following her about from place to place, and playing a hundred

monkey tricks to instil into her comprehension that nothing would

please me better than the office of making her amends for the ill

usage of her husband. The pretty creature ruminated on my proffered

kindness, and to such purpose as to let me know in the end that my

labor was not wasted on an ungrateful soil. I received a note from

her in answer to several I had transmitted by one of those convenient

old dowagers in such high request throughout Spain and Italy. The

lady sent me word that her husband supped with his mistress every

evening, and did not return home till very late. It was impossible

to mistake the meaning of this. On that very night I planted myself

under Violante's windows, and engaged her in a most tender

conversation. At the moment of parting, it was settled between us

that every evening, at the same hour, we should meet and converse on

the same everlasting topic, without gainsaying any such other acts of

gallantry as might safely be submitted to the peering eye of day.

Hitherto Don Balthazar, as Violante's husband was called, had no

reason to complain of his forehead; but I was a natural philosopher,

and little satisfied with metaphysical endearments. One evening,

therefore, I repaired under my lady's windows, with the design of

telling her that there was an end of life and everything if we could

not come together on more accommodating terms than from the balcony

to the street; for I had never yet been able to get into the house.

Just as I got thither, a man came within sight, apparently with the

view of dogging me. In fact, it was the husband returning earlier

than usual from his precious bit of amusement; but observing a male

nuisance near his nunnery, instead of coming straight home, he walked

backwards and forwards in the street. It was almost a moot point

with me what I ought to do. At last, I resolved on accosting Don

Balthazar, though neither of us had the slightest knowledge of each

other. Noble gentleman, said I, you would do me a most particular

favor by leaving the street vacant to me for this one night; I would

do as much for you another time. Sir, answered he, I was just going

to make the same request to you. I am on the lookout after a girl,

over whom a confounded fellow of a brother keeps watch and ward like

a jailer; and she lives not twenty yards from this place. I could

wish to carry on my project without a witness. We have the means,

replied I, of attaining both our ends without clashing; for the lady

of my desires lives there, added I, pointing to his own house. We

had better even help one another, in case of being attacked. With

all my heart, resumed he; I will go to my appointment, and we will

make common cause, if need be. Under this pretence he went away, but

only to observe me the more narrowly; and the darkness of the night

favored his doing so without detection.

As for me, I made up to Violante's balcony in the simplicity of my

heart. She soon heard my signal, and we began our usual parley. I

was not remiss in pressing the idol of my worship to grant me a

private interview in some safe and practicable place. She was rather

coy to my entreaties, as favors hardly earned are the higher valued:

at length she took a letter out of her pocket, and flung it down to

me. There, said she, you will find in that scrap of paper the

promise of what you have teased me so long about. She then withdrew,

as the hour approached when her husband usually came home. I put the

note up carefully, and went towards the place where Don Balthazar had

told me that his business lay. But that stanch husband, with the

sagacity of an old sportsman where his own wife was the game, came

more than halfway to meet me, with this question: Well, good sir, are

you satisfied with your happy fortunes? I have reason to be so,

answered I. And as for yourself, what have you done? Has the blind

god befriended you? Alas! quite the contrary, replied he; that

impertinent brother, who takes such liberties with my beauty, thought

fit to come back from his country house, whence we hugged ourselves

as sure that he would not return till to-morrow. This infernal

chance has put all my soft and soothing pleasures out of tune.

Nothing could exceed the mutual pledges of lasting friendship, which

were exchanged between Don Balthazar and me. To draw the cords the

closer, we made an appointment for the next morning in the great

square. This plotting gentleman, after we had parted, betook himself

to his own house, without giving Violante at all to understand that

he knew more about her than she wished him. On the following day he

was punctual in the great square, and I was not five minutes after

him. We exchanged greetings with all the warmth of old friendship;

but it was a vapor to mislead on his part, though a spark of heavenly

flame on mine. In the course of conversation, this hypocritical Don

Balthazar palmed upon me a fictitious confidence, respecting his

intrigue with the lady about whom he had been speaking the night

before. He put together a long story he had been manufacturing on

that subject, and all this to hook me in to tell him, in return, by

what means I had got acquainted with Violante. The snare was too

subtle for me to escape; I owned all with the innocence of a new-born

babe. I did not even stick at showing the note I had received from

her, and read the contents, to the following purport: "I am going

to-morrow to dine with Donna Inez. You know where she lives. It is

in the house of that confidential friend that I mean to pass some

happy moments along with you. It is impossible longer to refuse a

boon your patience has so well merited."